Tianhe-2 has maintained its rank as the world's most powerful supercomputer for the sixth consecutive time. (Photo : www.english.cntv.cn)
The biannual Top500 list of supercomputers released on Monday, Nov. 16, revealed that China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer has retained its position as the world's most powerful system for the sixth consecutive time, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Developed by China's National University of Defense Technology and deployed at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, Tianhe-2, or Milky Way 2, has a performance of 33.86 petaflops per second (Pflop/s). It has held the title as the most powerful computer since June 2013.
According to the report, the Chinese supercomputer system can perform almost twice as fast as the Titan of the U.S. Department of Energy, the next on the list, which has a performance of 17.59 Pflop/s.
According to the report, since June 2013 there has been no change in the ranking of the world's top 5 supercomputers in the latest edition of the closely watched list.
"The top five computers are very powerful and expensive," Jack Dongarra, professor of the University of Tennessee and editor of the report, said in a statement sent via email. "It will take perhaps another year before a new system enters the top five."
The report also indicated significant changes from last year's list. One change is the sharp decline in the number of systems in the United States, which is currently at 201.
"This is down from 231 in July and is the lowest number of systems installed in the U.S. since the list was started in 1993," the statement said.
In contrast to the U.S. record, China made "a great leap" to 109 systems, the report said.
"China received a big boost from Sugon, Lenovo and Inspur," Dongarra said. "The large number of submissions came from Sugon."
According to the Top500 statement, Sugon has surpassed IBM in the system category with 49 systems; while Lenovo, which acquired IBM's x86 server business last year, has 25 systems in the list, a remarkable increase from just three on the July 2015 list.
The report added that some systems previously listed as IBM are now labeled as both IBM/Lenovo and Lenovo/IBM.
The third vendor from China, Inspur, also has 15 systems now on the list.
"China is . . . carving out a bigger share as a manufacturer of high performance computers with multiple Chinese manufacturers becoming more active in this field," the statement concluded.
HP leads the overall list with 156 systems, followed by Cray with 69 systems, then China's Sugon with 49 systems. IBM ranks fourth with 45 systems. Lenovo is sixth in the ranking, while Inspur ranked eighth on the list.
The Top500 list, an authoritative ranking of the world's supercomputers, is compiled on the basis of the machines' performance using the Linpack benchmark set by experts from the United States and Germany.
